Vagrant with a Lost Home
by iffiness
Summary: Doctor Who. Barely AU. Starts at 9th Doctor. No interaction between Time Lords yet. Lincoln, the United States answer to threats from alien races, is led by none other than the Commander; a Time Lord with nowhere else to go until Gallifrey is found again. Join in the adventures of the Commander and the Lincoln team as they face off Weevils, Cybermen, and many more.
1. Chapter 1--Welcome to Lincoln

"Alright, Noobie, pay attention," A short man with sharp blue eyes barked, snapping his fingers in a taller man's face, "I don't know what you've been told, but I do know that whatever it was, it wasn't the truth. They usually leave it up to us to do the real debriefing, so lemme throw some rules out there: first, don't ask any questions until I'm done talking; actually, just don't say anything at all. You got that?" He quipped, narrowing his eyes at the other man.

"Yes, sir," The taller man spoke, and immediately regretted it. He didn't quite understand why he felt intimidated by the short man in front of him, but something about the way he carried himself, and the way his blue eyes pierced through his own brown eyes unnerved him.

The short man shook his head, his short brown hair shaking as he did, "I told you not to speak, remember?"

This time the taller man only nodded, his sandy blonde hair barely moving with the action. They had been standing beside of the Lincoln Memorial for several moments now, and he was beginning to wonder why they were even there. He cautiously looked around him, only to see that none of the tourists even so much as glanced at him. This made him furrow his eyebrows in confusion, looking towards the other man in question.

"They _could_ see us, if they wanted," The man began, motioning to them, "But they don't. We're standing in a perception filter. They'll just continue to look right on over us, forgetting we were even here." He smiled now, nodding in a surprisingly appreciative way, "You're observant. Good for you."

Much to the taller man's surprise and the shorter's amusement the block beneath them began to move down into the monument.

"Easy there, cowboy," The shorter man said, grabbing onto the other's arm. "What was your name again? Toby?"

"Tony, sir," Tony said, swallowing down saliva that had pooled in his mouth. "Tony Miner."

"Well, Tony Miner, welcome to Lincoln," He replied, motioning around them as they were lowered into a spacious chamber. The walls were mostly wooden, much to Tony's surprise, although the feeling came off something like a sewer. There were devices everywhere that Tony had never seen before, and somewhere nearer to the left of the room was a group of people watching them descend.

Tony, finding it hard not to gape at the fact that they were now in some sort of secret base underneath a national monument, turned his attention to the people watching him. There were two women and one man, all of them seeming to be laughing at his expense. He was led over to them by the first man, who stood beside them as they got closer.

"Alright, guys," The shorter man said to the rest of them, silencing them, "This here's the Noobie. Tony Miner, the CIA's finest doctor. Tony, this is Emma Twain," He directed his attention to a petite woman with dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes who waved politely at him.

"Hello," She said pleasantly, sticking her hand out to shake his own. "Nice to meet you. I hope you don't have a hard time coming to terms with all this."

Tony shook her hand hesitantly, but his reply was cut off by the original man speaking again.

"And this is Abigail Lynch," He motioned towards the other woman, who had light brown hair and blue eyes.

She moved forward and shook his hand, choosing to remain silent instead of speaking. He smiled at her in a way he hoped was comforting, assuming she was shy.

"And this fellow is Grant Carpenter," The short man nodded his head in the direction of the tanned man with black hair and brown eyes. "And I saved the best for last: me! I'm David Grout, the best one out of this lot!"

That sparked several different remarks from the others such as 'in your dreams' or 'sure, whatever'. They all soon went on their own way, returning to their desks, occasionally glancing towards David and Tony. David continued showing Tony around, trying to explain the best he could about what they did there. It was all a bit too much for Tony to take in, honestly. He had heard of aliens, of course. They had been all over the news the past few years, especially over in the UK. He just didn't expect to be put into some organization in the States that handled aliens. He was hardly qualified to be an alien doctor.

"You alright there, Tony?" David asked him for the second time, knocking Tony out of his thoughts. "You seemed to be zoning out. It can be a bit much at first, I know, but you were chosen for a reason. Don't worry about it. Instead, how about I show you to where you'll be working?"

Tony nodded, unsure of what to say. David seemed to be the man in charge here, but the way his demeanor had changed from when he first met him was surprising. Tony no longer felt intimidated. He felt a camaraderie, of sorts. David didn't really seem like the type of person to lead an organization like this. None of the others did, either. That left Tony with a very large question, but he was stalled from asking it as he walked into the Med Bay. It was fantastic. Everywhere around him was extremely new medical equipment, computers, and everything he would ever need to work in a place like this. After seeing facilities like these, he figured he'd be hard-pressed to want to turn it away, but there was still one thing bothering him—

"Who, exactly, is in charge of this place? If you don't mind my asking?" He asked as he walked over to a table, examining the instruments that lay there. "I mean, no offense, but none of you guys seem like the type to, I dunno, lead something like this."

In response David offered him a lopsided smile, shrugging. "You'll meet the person in charge soon, I'm sure. A fan of larger-than-life entrances, that one," He laughed, his eyes wrinkling in mirth. "I'm afraid our faithful leader is off for the day, doing who knows what. In the meantime, though, I'll leave you to it. There are manuals all over the place, and I highly recommend reading them before pressing any buttons."

Tony was dissatisfied, but nodded anyway, watching the other man disappear back out into the hallway. This place made absolutely no sense. He couldn't deny his curiosity, though, and soon began flipping through the manuals he found. He was thoroughly fascinated with it all. A lot of the devices here were made from scavenged alien technology. It would take a little bit of time to get used to this. He figured the others were busy discussing him, trying to decide if they wanted to keep him or something. Before he got in the medical bay he wasn't sure he wanted to stay himself, but now he hoped they kept him. He could learn a lot from technology like this.

A blaring siren soon erupted throughout the entirety of the base, startling Tony out of his reading. Unsure of what to do, he ran out and looked into the hall. He glanced behind him, wondering if he should stay in the med bay… But he was extremely curious. He ran down the hall and emerged in the main chamber, watching as the rest of them crowded around a monitor near the center. David was the first to notice him and waved him over, eager to include him.

"Take a look here, Tony," David said, motioning to the screen. "There's been some Rift activity. We're gonna need to go check it out. You coming?"

"If I'm allowed," Tony responded, nodding. "This… "Rift activity", does it mean aliens are in the city?"

"Sort of," The quiet brunette Abigail spoke up, startling him. "It's a tear in the fabric of space and time. Sort of a gateway for things to get in. The other end of the rift is sort of just free flying in space-time."

Grant nodded in affirmation, "And right now, it seems like something came through. Let's go!"

Everything from then on was hectic to Tony. They all piled into an SUV and sped off to the coordinates. Abigail was frantically typing away in a laptop while Grant and David prepared pistols. Emma was driving them all, occasionally glancing back to make sure they were ready. They soon arrived at a parking complex, which was thankfully not very occupied. It seemed most of the people had gone off somewhere, probably shopping, leaving their cars behind. Abigail and Emma were staying behind at the SUV to continue monitoring the situation, while Grant, David, and Tony went up to the top level, where the energy seemed to be coming from. They quickly broke apart as they emerged on the top, each looking for anything unordinary.

Tony was beginning to wonder if he should've maybe asked for a gun when he heard a low growling from his left. Exhaling quietly, he peaked around, coming face-to-face with one of the most hideous creatures he had ever seen. It bared its teeth at him, revealing extremely sharp canines. Frightened Tony began back away, wondering how the creature—or alien, maybe—could breathe seemingly without a nose. It followed him as he backed away, its gait appearing to be slightly limping. "David? Grant? I think I found it!" He called out, hoping they heard him. It appeared they had, he heard shouts back at him, but he was too concerned with the thing quickly advancing on him to care. He tuned out everything around him but the threat before him. He didn't even see the concrete shed materializing off to his left. All of this attention was focused on the hideous, deadly looking creature, until—

"Oh, damn it all, I'm late again, aren't I?" A soprano voice chimed loudly, with a strong American accent that he couldn't place to a specific region, causing both he and the creature to look for the owner. "I thought for sure I had it right, but nooooo! Of course not! And now look, there's a Weevil! What are you doing here, big boy?" The woman asked, moving towards the pair of them. Tony was absolutely stunned. Where had she come from? She had long blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a pale complexion. She wore brown pants, dark orange Converse, a white blouse, and a fedora. Who wears a fedora anymore?

The "Weevil", as she called it, seemed to be frightened by her. It began backing away from her approach. Her eyes narrowed as she reached inside of the bag she wore around her torso, pulling out a small syringe. "It's alright, sweetheart," She cooed to it, moving forward again. "Just don't do anything fishy, and I'll not have to hurt you."

Tony shook his head to clear his senses, moving forward to the woman's aid. He had no idea who she was, but she seemed to have a better grasp on the situation than he did. He also felt compelled to help her, to follow her lead. She acknowledged he had moved behind her and nodded, which made him feel like a prick for hiding behind a woman, but he had no other choice. He couldn't explain his sudden urge to be behind her.

The two of them continued advancing on the Weevil until it had its back to half-wall, where there was a 40ft fall. The woman stopped advancing as it began to realize it could no longer retreat, watching as it tried to decide on what to do. The other two escape routes, on either the left or right side of the Weevil, were soon blocked off by David and Grant. Tony observed that they seemed to know the woman he was with, as they didn't question it when she raised her hand and stopped them from advancing on the Weevil.

"Hey, come on," She said again, moving to the Weevil by herself. "Just relax. Don't do anything rash—" No sooner had she said it did the Weevil sprint forward, roaring its outrage at being trapped. Tony had no idea what was happening as he watched the creature charge at him, paralyzed by fear. He hardly even realized that the moment the Weevil had begun, the other three people had moved into action. David and Grant had rushed forwards along with the woman. She was much closer than them, though, and managed to push Tony out of the way before the creature could tackle him. Tony laid on the ground in a daze as he watched the Weevil tackle the woman instead, flinging her hat to the side as they wrestled. David and Grant watched on helplessly, unable to shoot the creature without risking hitting the woman. Tony watched in horror until he saw the syringe the woman had been holding. He quickly pushed himself forward and grabbed it, rushing past Grant and David to the skirmish. He hesitated to plunge the needle into the creature's leg until he saw blood fling away from the fighting two, and almost as soon as he had finished injecting the liquid the creature stopped fighting. It instead rolled away from the woman, writhing slightly as unconsciousness overwhelmed it.

The woman laid there, slightly winded, her eyes closed as she fought to catch her breath. That was something Tony could handle. He rushed to her side as the other two men went to detain the Weevil. Asking her if she was alright seemed to be like a dumb thing to do, so he instead lifted up her left arm, wincing as he saw a very painful looking bite wound. "I'm gonna need to clean that," He told her, giving her a once over for any other wounds. "Might need stitches, too. It looks pretty deep." He looked up to her face to find her smiling down at him, which caught him by surprise. He wasn't expecting her to look so happy after what had happened. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm peachy," She said with a nod, sitting up. "Nothing like a good ole fashioned fisticuffs with a Weevil to get your blood pumping!" That made the two eavesdropping men beside them to laugh, causing both the woman and Tony to look over at them. "What?" She questioned them indignantly, frowning. "It's the truth. Get that Weevil into the cage in the SUV and stop being pricks."

"Oh, sure, Commander," David said, still chuckling. "And what will you do? You gonna let Tony there take care of your arm?"

"Well, I guess so," She shrugged, glancing at Tony. "Who is he, anyway? Is he a random?"

"Nope," Grant said, heaving the Weevil off the ground and over his shoulder. "He's our new doctor."

"If you'll recall, Commander, you had a bit of a rant about us needing to keep a doctor around. So here he is," David nodded, grinning at them.

"I didn't necessarily mean it in a literal sense," She murmured, looking back at Tony. "But yes, I will be having him tend to my arm. Off with you two, then."

"Whatever you say, Commander," Grant said with a grin, lugging off the Weevil with David following behind.

"Uhm, I'm sorry to butt in, but shouldn't we be going with them?" Tony asked, watching as his two associates left.

"Nah. Now, c'mon, help me up," The woman said, holding a hand out to him. He was obliged to help her stand, worrying over every movement she made. She was a relatively tall woman, but lanky, and she didn't seem to have much muscle to have been able to fight such a creature as she did. "Oh, stop that, I'm no child for you to be finicky over," She chastised, trying to be strict as she smiled at him. "We'll take my ride back to the base."

"Again, I'm sorry, but who are you? 'Commander', they said? Commander who? Commander of what?" Tony asked, following her as she walked to the storage shed on the level. He was beginning to worry that she had hit her head as she fiddled around with the door handle of it, trying to open it.

"Oh, sorry, I'm terrible at introductions. I'm the Commander, that's all. No need for any other names," the Commander told him, flashing him a quick smile before she started digging in her pockets. She soon pulled out a key and rammed it into the lock, pushing the door open and going inside as she retrieved the key. "Now, come on, let's go to get you some supplies to clean my arm with, like you said."

His face was contorted with confusion as he watched her waltz into the storage shed. She must've hit her head sometime during that fight and was delirious. He really needed to get her to a hospital, or back to the base, to get properly checked out.

"Well? You coming?" She called from within the shed, causing him to frown and move forward to retrieve her.

What he ran into, though, was completely unexpected. His eyes widened as he looked around, sputtering in confusion. It was huge! There was a huge room inside of the tiny storage shed! That was impossible! He quickly backtracked and looked at it from the outside again before moving inside, trying to wrap his head around the idea. "This is impossible; it's bigger on the inside!"

"Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes!" Was the Commander's response, obviously delighted with his reaction. "It's called a TARDIS: time and relative dimensions in space," She explained, gesturing to the machine around her. "We're in the console room. This is where I pilot her from," She placed a hand on the chair she stood beside and quickly pulled it back, grimacing at the blood she left on it. "Let's go get this cut cleaned up, yeah?"

"Yeah…" He mumbled, still looking around in awe. There were metal pillars leading up to the ceiling at an angle, with odd round shapes placed around the walls in a pattern that seemingly had no point. In the middle of the room was a giant glass container with an oddly pulsating red light, surrounded by what looked to be controls. There was a slight humming noise throughout the room, which he assumed belonged to the motor of the strange machine. He didn't notice as the Commander sighed and shook her head, moving forward and grabbing his hand to pull him along with her. He was even more surprised to find himself moving down a hallway, which added even more impossibilities to the list. The hallway was relatively plain, with doors scattered here and there, but where they ended up was anything but ordinary. The room they were now in was scathingly white, but in a sterile way, like a hospital. Various instruments were strewn around; along with several containers that he could register as a place to deposit medical waste. He felt her grip on his hand release as she moved away to sit on one of the beds, watching him observe the room.

"Maybe instead of just gaping at everything, you could do something you're familiar with, like sterilizing this before it gets infected," the Commander suggested to him, inclining her head to her arm. "You'll find all you need in that cabinet right there," she pointed it out with her Converse clad foot as she watched him, smiling again as he moved to do what she suggested.

They continued on in silence for a few moments while he got the necessary supplies and cleaned her wound, wondering how she managed to wince only slightly when he poured the antiseptic on it. It was almost as if she didn't feel the pain. She maybe didn't. She walked around in this TARDIS like she owned it, and he knew that it definitely wasn't from Earth. There was no way they had developed technology like this. If that was the case, he was left to assume she may be an alien instead of a human. She looked human, though. Her skin felt cooler than human skin, but it was possible her species has a lower body temperature. Either that, or she was just cold. He would've continued on that train of thought, trying to decide whether or not she was human, but she cleared her throat.

"That, uh, that thing… That thing that you did, out there, with the Weevil," she stumbled across her words as if she found it difficult to speak all of the sudden, which surprised him into looking up to meet her eyes. "It was, uh, good," she finally managed to say, smiling at him nervously. "Thanks."

"No problem," He replied, unsure of what else to say. He was confused by her sudden apparent shyness. Did she not thank people often? Maybe he should feel honored. But what would make her react in such a way? It was almost like she didn't expect help from anyone else. The others that work with them seemed like a respectable sort; they would have jumped in to help her if they could have. "This looks like it's gonna heal right up," he told her, looking back down at it. "I thought it was deeper before, but I was apparently wrong. It probably won't even scar."

"Nah, I doubt it would," she replied, smiling at him. "It'd take a lot more than that to scar me!" She jumped up then, startling him at the suddenness. It seemed she was over the previous embarrassment. "And you weren't wrong, Anthony. It was deeper before. I just healed up already."

"You… healed up?" He questioned her, furrowing his brows. "That doesn't make any sense."

"No. I guess not," She amended, grinning wolfishly. "Not if you're human. But I'm not! And you already knew that. I could tell by the way you were looking me over. You've got a very sharp eye, Doctor Anthony Miner."

"How did you know my full name?" He asked her, unsure of how to approach the sudden revelation that he was in the same room as an alien—an attractive one, at that. "And please, call me Tony."

"Oh, well, I may have done some digging around in David's mind to find that out," shrugging nonchalantly she began to exit the room, beckoning him to follow her. "I didn't think it would be right to go rifling through your thoughts without even knowing you, so I did it to him. Probably annoyed him, too," grinning, she led him back to the console room they were in before, "Now then, we should probably get back to them. What do you think?"

"I… I don't know. If you aren't human, what are you?" he asked her quietly, standing awkwardly to the side as she moved around the console, looking at a screen and flicking buttons. "You certainly look human."

"No," she suddenly insisted, looking at him instead of the screen in front of her. "_You_ look Time Lord. We came first."

"But that's impossible!" He replied, taken aback by what she had said.

"No, no," she chided, frowning at him. "It's only improbable. There's a difference."

"Right, I guess I should've expected a reply like that," he countered, frowning back at her. She wasn't necessarily the easiest person to talk to when she found himself facing such an impossible situation.

"Always expect the unexpected," she grinned at him, her chiding tone gone. "Now, then, what'd you wanna do?"

Tony sighed and shook his head, moving around to look at the screen with her. He only found himself staring at numerous symbols and shapes that he didn't understand, though. "I don't know. What'd you say this thing was? A TARDIS? Time and relative dimensions in space?"

"Oh, yes, exactly," she responded, apparently delighted that he had remembered it word for word.

"Time and space, huh? Does that mean it's a spaceship?" his questioned was answered with an ecstatic nod, which urged him to continue his train of thought. "And a… time-ship? Time machine, even?" when he received another nod he felt slightly more confident, beginning to smile. "That's… amazing, but we really should get back to the others…"

"Oh, like they'll know we've gone anywhere! It's time **and** space, remember? I could get us there at any time I wanted!" she finally spoke with glee, beginning to hop around the entire console, pressing buttons and pulling levers. "You should hold on!" she called to him, laughing as the ship began to jerk.

He desperately clung onto a rail beside him, observing how her white shirt no longer had any blood on it. He'd just have to check it off as an alien thing, he guessed. He'd also have to put erratic behavior, overbearing giddiness, and childish antics on that list. He just wondered where she was taking him, and why he even trusted her to begin with.

It wasn't long until she began slowing down, locking things into place as the TARDIS steadied out. Tony was able to let go of the railing as she checked everything, mumbling to herself and nodding. "Alright, we're ready. I've extended the oxygen field a bit so we can walk out a little further."

"That sounds nice and reassuring," he said quietly, frowning in apprehension. He wasn't sure he actually did want this. He had no idea where they were… or when. He couldn't fight his overwhelming curiosity, though.

The Commander offered him a reassuring smile, as if she knew he was uncertain, and offered her hand to him. He took it without hesitation, letting her pull him along to the door. "You ready?" she asked him, offering him a grin.

"Not really," he said, smiling nervously. Her enthusiasm was a little contagious, but he couldn't help but to be scared of what was beyond those doors.

"Oh well," she quipped with a grin, pushing the door open and dragging him with her.

As they emerged through the door Tony felt his breath hitch in his throat; floating in front of them, thousands of miles away, was the Earth. Beneath his feet was the moon. "You've gotta be kidding me," he said in amazement, looking around them. "I'm on the moon."

The response he got was a solid punch in the shoulder.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed, holding onto his arm and frowning at her.

"What?" shrugging innocently, she motioned around them. "This is real. I thought something you humans did was put yourselves in pain when you think you're dreaming."

"That's just a saying!" he informed her, shaking his head. "I didn't need you to punch me. I believe this."

"Oh. Good. Right on, then," she was obviously surprised at how accepting he was of what was happening to him. She left him standing alone to walk out five more feet, stopping and turning to him. "This is where the field extended to. Go any further and you'll die."

"Oh, you're a very cheeky woman," he stated, grimacing. "I'm fine here, thanks."

"Yeah, don't blame you," she said, going back to him and sitting down. "Not too exciting, this. It's just the moon."

"What could be better than this? Not many people get to stand on the moon," he replied, crouching beside her. "This is absolutely fantastic."

"No, that's fantastic," she amended, pointing at the Earth. "That lot down there, the human race. No idea what's going on around them. They aren't alone in the universe, and they know it, somewhere deep down inside of them, but they don't care. They keep on living their lives, doing what they do best: surviving. And that's what they should be doing. They don't need to know about the rest of us out there in the universe. Not yet. And that's what we do, Tony Miner. We keep them from finding out, as best we can. We save them, we help them, we do whatever they need us to do, and then we go home at the end of the day with no one the wiser. We aren't appreciated; we're unknown to all but the highest of authorities. This isn't a job for glory seekers."

"No," he agreed, overwhelmed by the significance of the moment. "But it is a glorious job."

The Commander smiled at his words, nodding and standing up. "You're right in that. You're very accepting of all of this. Most people would have more questions."

"Well, I have no choice but to believe in the evidence of my own eyes," he informed her, looking back at the Earth. "As far as I can tell, you've transported me from somewhere down there," he pointed at the planet, "To here. That's enough proof for me."

She flashed him a grin as he looked back at her, motioning to the ship. "Welcome to Lincoln, Tony. Ready to head back?"

"You bet. It seems I need to read up on the anatomy and physiology of aliens now," smiling he moved to into the TARDIS, still curious as to how it actually worked. She followed him in, shutting the door firmly behind her.

"What do you say? Wanna get back before them?" She asked him, moving to the monitor and reading the symbols as they flew past. "I know for you and me it's been about twenty minutes, but if you want, I can get us back there at about… I dunno, sixteen minutes ago?"

"Whatever you want," he told her, readily grasping the bars surrounding the center console. "I'm just going to hold on."

The Commander offered him a warm smile with rose tinted lips before she began running around the console, adjusting knobs, pressing buttons, and pulling levers. Tony held on tightly as the TARDIS began to come to life, shaking around as if it was in motion. It wasn't long until they were still again, and the Commander motioned to him to let go of the railing. "Alright, here we are. Let's go."

Tony nodded as he followed the Commander out of the TARDIS, marveling at the fact that they were actually back at the Lincoln base. She seemed to have kept her word, too, because no one was there. "So… we really did it, then? Traveled in time?"

"Yep," she nodded, confirming his thoughts. "Not that big of a deal. I'll make sure to give David some books for you to read, on alien anatomy and whatever it was you said." The Commander walked over to a plain gray couch that was pressed against the wall, plopping herself down onto it. "They'll be here soon."

Almost on cue Tony began hearing the voices of the others, turning to watch as they emerged from a hallway off to the right. He watched them in anticipation, wondering where the Weevil had gone. They all looked the same as they did not long ago. David was even carrying the hat the Commander seemed to have forgotten about at the parking garage.

"Oi, you forgot something," David called to the Commander, waving it around. "And where the hell have you been?"

The Commander _harrumphed_ at David's treatment of her hat, launching herself off of the couch and marching over to him. "I'll have you know," she began, waving her finger in his face, "That I—" she paused, scrunching her brows in thought.

"That you what? Lost track of time on the fifth moon of some blue planet where the people resembled ants?" David remarked, raising his eyebrow at her and grinning.

"I…" she continued, releasing the breath she had been holding and taking a step back. With every second of silence, she seemed to get paler.

"Commander? You alright?" Tony questioned, moving forward a little. "You seem to have gotten a little bit pale."

"Yeah," she blinked several times as she took another step away from David, beginning to sway. "Don't worry."

Tony and David both moved forward to her, unwilling to let her fall. "Don't worry about what, Commander?" David asked her, holding onto her left arm to steady her. Tony stood with a grasp on her right.

"Me," she said meekly, losing the strength in her knees, her legs buckling. David and Tony held onto her tightly, keeping her from hitting the ground. "I just forgot, that's all. I forgot…"

"What'd you forget?" David questioned her, peaking around to see her face. "Why are you practically passing out?"

"Oh," she exclaimed, her lips forming an 'o' as she remembered. "Radiation."

That caused Tony's eyebrows to perk up as he began to look her over again. She wasn't exhibiting any typical signs of radiation poisoning, but he didn't really know what to look for if she was an alien. "Let's get you to the med bay." He lifted slid his arm around her back, crouching to do the same behind her legs as he lifted her. "We can't hold you up forever."

The Commander only murmured a response as her head drooped, to which the rest of the group took to be permission. David and Tony went on to the medical bay while the rest of them went to their desks to do the paperwork that came along with the Weevil.

"What's happened to her? Do you know?" David asked as they laid her down on one of the beds, his forehead creased in worry.

"She said radiation. I can only assume it's radiation poisoning. She isn't really exhibiting any of the typical symptoms, but she did say she wasn't human, so I don't know why I expected it," Tony informed him, pulling a stethoscope off the wall.

"Well, she was acting a little strange, for her," David admitted, shrugging. "I just figured she had a good time off where ever she was. Maybe that's what radiation does to her species?"

"Maybe," unsure, Tony only nodded a little, placing the stethoscope over the left side of her chest. Her heartbeat was strong and steady, which was good, but there was something else… Narrowing his eyes in confusion Tony moved the stethoscope over to the right side of her chest. His eyes widened when he realized just what the odd sound in her chest was. "She has two hearts. Two hearts? How is that even possible? Do you think she has multiples of other organs?"

"I dunno," David answered, watching Tony with amusement. "I only knew about the hearts thing."

Tony shook his head, sitting in one of the nearby chairs. That was weird. It was even weirder that she took so long to exhibit any symptoms. Actually, he wasn't even sure what was wrong with her. He'd just have to wait, hope, that she woke up, and then—

The Commander jerked upright suddenly, her eyes wide and breathing heavily. Both Tony and David jumped, startled, before moving to her side. She stared, unseeing, at the wall in front of her for a few seconds before plopping back down on the bed, her eyes wandering from David to Tony. "Did I pass out?"

David shook his head as she asked them, chuckling, "Oh, yeah. You sort of passed out."

"Was it at least a little bit respectable?" She questioned, looking between him and Tony. "Please don't tell me I flailed or anything."

"Nope," Tony interjected, shaking his head. "You just sort of collapsed. Looked like your knees went weak. What happened?"

"Oh, well," she began, sitting up again. "I went spelunking into a class 4 O star…"

"You did what?" David exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief. "There's no way you could go spelunking in a star."

"That's what I said! But then there it was: a spelunking star. It was huge. It was also alive, and in a lot of pain. They had drilled a lot of holes in it for spelunking. I guess I underestimated the amount of radiation in its core when I went to go calm it down. Oh well. It could've been worse," she finished with a nod, throwing her legs off the side of the bed. "I apologize if I was acting strange. Radiation tends to get to my head a little. Are you the new guy?"

"Yeah," Tony said, shaking his head in disbelief. "We've met. You took me to the moon."

"Oh," she blinked slowly, furrowing her brows in thought. "I suppose I did. Sorry. They shouldn't have left you with me, though, so it wasn't my fault. Welcome to Lincoln, Noobie. If you need anything ask David, and if he gives you any problems don't be afraid to tell me." Finished speaking, she stood up, nodding to them both as she exited the room. It was almost like she was a completely different person.

"She's not acting the same," Tony said to David, frowning at the other man.

"No. She's acting like normal, now," David told him with a knowing smile, shrugging. "You'll get used to it. She's not that bad. A little rough around the edges, maybe, but she's decent enough. Really, though. If you need anything all you have to do is ask."

"Well," he took a moment, considering what he had learned, "I'd like some books on aliens. I need to learn their anatomy, or I won't be able to do my job well."

"Consider it done," David grinned, nodding and rushing out of the room. It was pretty obvious that he didn't want to be left answering the new guy's questions.

That was fine with Tony. He wanted to be left alone a while. He had a lot to think over. In fact, the only other interruption that day was when David came back with a box full of assorted books. They chatted idly for a bit before David left again. Tony began reading almost immediately after David had left, not looking up again from the pile of books until he heard the door open.

"Hey, Noobie," the Commander's voice called, causing him to look up at her. She didn't look much different from before. She had her fedora on, which he thought was a bit silly, and appeared to have redone her natural toned makeup(or possibly her species just naturally look that way.) "Are you planning on going home tonight?"

Startled, he pressed the button on his iPhone, seeing the time on the now lit display. "I didn't even realize it was already past seven," he told her, standing up, "I got a little caught up with reading."

She only nodded, watching him as made sure he had his keys and wallet. "You can't take the book home tonight. Maybe another time, but not now. I can't risk them falling into someone else's hands."

"I understand," he nodded, smiling slightly. He wasn't really sure he liked how cold she had become, but she might've just been tired. "I'll just be leaving, then."

"I'll walk you out," she told him, walking back out into the hallway. They continued walking in silence for several moments until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Are you not going home for the night?" he asked, glancing over at her.

She looked at him, appraising the nature of his question, "I stay here. I suppose you could call this place my home."

He could only nod as he thought of the implication, looking around at the base. As far as he could tell there weren't any bedrooms. Maybe she meant in her TARDIS? Or maybe she didn't sleep at all? He had no idea. The first thing he had looked for was a book on her species, Time Lord, but had found nothing. Not even a small mention. It wasn't long until they emerged out of a door he hadn't noticed before. He looked around curiously, noting that they weren't that far from the Lincoln Memorial. They had come out of a closed down snack shop.

"Off you go," she told him, waving in the direction of the street. "Try not to get attacked by Weevils."

"Technically I saved you from the last one," he reminded her, offering her a friendly grin.

"Yep," she said, popping the 'p' at the end. She didn't offer him a smile in return. Instead, she began walking away, her hands folded behind her back.

Tony frowned as he watched her walk away, wondering what she was going to do. It wasn't like he could stop her, after all, and they had his cell number to get ahold of him if anything happened over night. He watched her for a moment longer before shrugging, turning to walk away to where his car was parked down the street. He had his hands shoved into his pockets as he thought about the different species he had learned about that day, barely paying attention to anything, especially not the rhythmic sound of feet padding on the concrete behind him.

"Come on!" the Commander barked at him, grabbing his upper arm and dragging him with her as she ran, causing him to begin to run as well. "Run!"

"Run?" he exclaimed, surprised by her sudden appearance. "From what?" he asked, looking behind them. He very quickly wished he hadn't. She had been out of his sight for all of five minutes, and had already provoked a group of Weevils into chasing her. "What did you do?!"

"What did I do?!" she yelled back, glaring at him, "I didn't do anything! I just thought I smelled something weird, so I checked it out, and then I found them! They're chasing me! I'm not chasing them! Turn!"

He was suddenly pulled into an alley to their right, the Weevils pursuing them having issues regaining their speed after the sudden turn. Tony wasn't sure what to do. He didn't have any weapons to defend them with, and it seemed like all the Commander was interested in doing was running. He'd have to invest in some running shoes soon if his new job was going to be like this. "Shouldn't we call the others?" he questioned her, glancing behind them to see the Weevils beginning to catch up.

"I don't know, maybe!" was her response, letting go of his arm to begin digging in her bag. "I personally don't see the point," she said, pulling out a rather impressive looking pistol from the depths of her purse. It didn't look like any weapon he had seen on Earth, so he assumed it was alien in nature. It was chrome, but had a large and glowing red center.

"What is that?" he asked her, now finding himself struggling to keep up with her after she let go of him.

"It's a gun!" she responded, annoyed, because she thought that was obvious. "They need to be dispatched!"

"You're going to kill them?" he squeaked out, skidding to stop running after he realized she had stopped and turned around.

"Yes," she replied calmly, raising it and aiming, "I am."

He had no chance to respond as a metallic whizzing noise echoed through the alleyway. He watched helplessly as she gunned down the six Weevils funneling their way to them in the alley. He now understood why she had chosen to pull him down into it. It forced the Weevils to run by a straight line, allowing only two to stand beside each other. It was easier for her to pick them off. He watched with an emotion akin to horror as they seemed to disintegrate before his eyes, listened to their panicked cries. He could hardly believe that the wonderful, philosophical, intelligent, _alien_ woman; the woman who had spoken so kindly of the Earth and what she did, would so willingly kill these creatures. Did the same compassion for humans not pass on with other species in her mind? He wasn't sure. He wasn't even sure he could speak after witnessing that.

"Stop it," she snapped back at him, ejecting the red coil from the center of the gun before putting it back into her bag. "If you're going to stare at me at least close your mouth."

"But you just… You just killed them, like it was nothing, in cold blood. They were defenseless to an attack like that," he protested, coming to his senses and walking up to her.

The Commander sighed as he spoke, shaking her head. "No. They weren't defenseless. They'd have torn us apart with their teeth."

"But they were unarmed. We could've—should've—called the others and attempted to catch them. You didn't kill the one earlier today," he pointed out, his frown creasing all of his features. "I mean, honestly, you had me thinking we were doing something good here. Like we were helping people. And aliens. But look at this. Look at _you!" _he suddenly exclaimed, pointing at her calm face, "You don't care to kill these living beings. If that's what Lincoln is about, I've changed my mind."

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments, neither of them daring to break it. It was a battle of their wills, and they were both very strong. Neither refused to break eye contact, barely breathing, waiting to see who would give in. Much to the surprise of Tony, it wasn't him to break first.

"You're free to do as you please," the Commander had spoken, glancing away from him and to where the Weevils once were. "Go home. Think it over. Come back in tomorrow, regardless of if you decide against working with us. And don't tell the rest of the team. I will know if you do." Her last few words were spoken quietly, but were laced with vehemence.

It was obvious to him that she was done speaking to him. He could tell that she still wasn't bothered by what she had done, but she wanted to make sure he had to think it over before deciding on quitting his new job. And like hell he wouldn't tell any of the others. They deserved to know what their leader was doing behind their backs. "I'll see you in the morning," he responded, stuffing his hands into his pocket and moving past her. He rushed back the way they had come from, not stopping until he was next to his driver's side door and searching for his keys in his pockets.

"They fell out," a monotonous voice told him, prompting him to look to see the Commander holding his keys out to him.

"Thanks," he mumbled back, quickly unlocking his doors and getting in. She didn't reply to him, only watched as he buckled his seat belt and began to back out of the spot and drive away. He found it slightly unnerving, seeing her there. In the alley he had seen the fires of war burning in her eyes, changing her soft features into something more dangerous. When he saw her then, holding his keys out to him, he saw something much different in her eyes: weariness. Her eyes looked so old, so battle-worn, but her body was so young. She made no sense to him. If he had found a book explaining her species, then he could've possibly understood the mixed signals. As it was, he was left to assume she was just older than she looked. Maybe not extremely, but enough. She most definitely knew how to handle a tight situation and her sudden personality switches had him thinking on mental disorders she could have. The only exception was that he had no idea whether or not that was just how her species acted, and until then he was only left with his silent speculations.

He would have never even considered running down into that narrow alley, and until he had seen what she was doing, funneling them into her bullets, he hadn't understood. As soon as he understood, he'd wished he hadn't. Perhaps her nickname, Commander, was something she actually earned. He didn't want to think on it anymore as he entered his apartment, shedding his shoes off and locking the door behind him. He only wanted to shower and sleep.

The following morning he anxiously went back to Lincoln, unsure of what would occur. He was standing by the giant statue of Abraham Lincoln as he thought about the events of the previous night, completely on the rocks about what his decision would be. Taking a night to think about it had definitely been for the best, but he still disagreed with what the Commander had done. He didn't get to spend time alone with his thoughts for very long before he saw David approaching him, as jovial as ever.

"Morning," he greeted Tony happily, waving as he came over. He stopped by him, his smile faltering a bit when he noticed that Tony seemed to be in a less than happy mood. "Something bothering you?"

Tony took a moment to process the question, wondering over his options. He could let the shorter man know about what had happened the previous night; on the other hand, he ran the risk of angering his new boss. He ultimately sighed and shrugged, gesturing for the David to join him on the lift before it descended into the base. "Just having some trouble processing all of this, I guess," he finally said, gesturing around to their surroundings as the underground office came into view.

"Well," apparently David had been expecting a response such as that, because he recovered his happy mood as quickly as he lost it, "That's to be expected. There's a lot to take in, considering yesterday morning you didn't even know aliens were a common thing. Now you're working with one!"

"With?" Tony asked quickly, raising an eyebrow in question. "I thought she was the boss?"

David shrugged, his eyes wandering over to where the Commander was sprawled out on the gray couch. He knew she was listening, like always. She typically just laid there until something exciting happened, and then she'd help them out. "I'd not go that far, might give her an even bigger ego," he joked, jerking a thumb at her as she stuck her middle finger up and pointed it at them in a sign of annoyance. "She helps us out. We don't really have a boss, but if we did it'd be her. She takes on the official role of it, but hates it. She has to play goody-goody for the higher-ups."

"Only because they're too dumb to realize I'm here to help them, not be their puppet," the Commander called to them, rolling over to view them as they stepped off of the lift. "You're the first two in."

"Is that really something surprising?" David asked as he moved past her and to his desk, turning his computer on and putting his things away.

"Not for you," she replied, watching Tony as he idled in the main room. "But it's his second day, so it's new. Well, it _is_ your second day, right, Anthony?" her question was obvious laced with secrecy, hinting back at the previous night in a way that David wouldn't understand without having been told prior.

"Yes," he replied promptly, frowning at her. If she wanted to play the cold game, he could too. "I thought about it after I got home last night, and regardless of you killing those Weevils in cold blood with no intention of reporting the encounter I still would like to work here."

That caught David's attention rather quickly, his eyebrows disappearing into his hair as he turned to look between the Commander and Tony. "You did what, now?"

"I've got some reading to do," Tony replied casually, trying to keep his face calm as inwardly he jumped for joy at one-upping the Commander. He knew better than to sit and gloat, though, and quickly high-tailed it into the med bay to continue his reading from last night. He didn't feel too bad about putting the Commander in the spotlight about it with David, considering she had been the one to be rude first. He was surprised, though, to find that the near-empty bookshelf in the corner of the room was now full of the books he had last night and several others. It was almost like a second Christmas, except they weren't wrapped up and under a tree. He could only imagine the conversation going on in the other room as he settled into one of the chairs in the room, opening several books on the counter in front of him.

He had been reading for about an hour when the door to the room slammed open, revealing the blonde woman who had been the very center of his thoughts as he read about the Silurians, homoreptilia that thrived thousands of years ago. He watched her curiously, an eyebrow raised as he watched her storm across the room and throw herself onto one of the hospital beds in the room. He wasn't sure whether or not he was supposed to talk. She obviously came in here for a reason, but without saying anything he wasn't sure how to react. He could tell she wanted some sort of a reaction from him by the way she was laying. Her arms were crossed over her chest, she had one leg crossed on the other, her ankles locked tightly at the end. Her eyes were closed, but he knew she was listening to every movement he made. She was extremely observant, so he hoped she recognized the fact that he turned back to his books instead of talking to her was a sign of spite.

She apparently understood what he was doing. He heard her roll over to face him, and practically felt the eyes boring into the back of his head. He continued to ignore her, aware of the fact that it was taking everything she had to not burst out at him first. He quite enjoyed the battle of wills they had partaken in since last night, but he knew it wouldn't last. He didn't know much about her species, but he needed to. He wanted to be able to properly treat everything he ran across, and that included her. With a sigh, he gave up their silent feud, turning around to face her.

"I can't find anything in these about, what did you say, 'Time Lords'," it wasn't phrased as a question, but they both knew it was one. He wanted to know why they were conveniently left out of everything. He was beginning to suspect she had gone through and erased anything about her species in the books.

"Oh," the tone of her voice was a bit surprised as she processed his question. She had apparently been expecting different words to be uttered from his lips. "Well, we're secretive," she finally said, sitting up and shrugging. "But you're not likely to run into any other Time Lords, so you don't realistically need to know about it."

There was something hidden within her words. Tony was sure of it. He just didn't know what to make about her last comment. "Why wouldn't I run into any other Time Lords?"

The Commander seemed forlorn for a moment as her lips pursed. He could see her contemplating a response in the silence, but ultimately she just shrugged and said: "You just wouldn't. No reason."

"Okay," Tony agreed, not wanting to push a potentially sensitive area, "What about yourself? I'm going to be running across you nearly every day, aren't I? I feel like I should at least be able to treat you properly if you get wounded," his argument was solid and he knew it, he could even see that she knew it. He just didn't understand why she wouldn't just tell him.

"No need to worry about me," her response was much quicker this time, her sky blue eyes peering into his own brown. "You'll find that I generally take care of myself."

"Commander, you have a bivascular system. That's pretty different from humans. I can't just treat you like a human with two hearts because there's no such thing." Persistence was key, he felt like.

"Oh, never treat me like a human. Most of your medicines will probably kill me," she said with a nod, a smile beginning to lighten her features. "Aspirin, in particular. But for the most part my person will take care of itself. It's one of the genetic adaptations made to some of our military."

"Aspirin?" He asked incredulously, turning around to write it down in the notebook he had, frowning. "I'm not sure I understand that one, but alright. I especially don't know if I agree with genetically manipulating anyone, regardless of their occupation. But is there anything else?"

The look on her face when he turned around was one of mild shock, which caused him to grin. She had just realized that he had inadvertently gotten her to tell him about some of the health concerns and culture of her species. "There were some desperate times in which genetic manipulation was deemed necessary. But how did you do that? How did you weasel your way to find that out?" she asked him, leaning forward on her knees, her feet swinging as she watched him curiously.

"I had a few psych courses in school," the grin didn't leave his face as he shrugged nonchalantly; trying to blow it off like it was nothing.

"You don't understand," she cut in, leaning back again and propping herself up with her arms. "You just got me to give you information without me even realizing it until it was too late. That's something I need to be careful with. No one has ever gotten me to talk when I didn't want to before; not in a long time, anyway. I was trained against that sort of thing."

"What do you mean, 'trained'?" he questioned her, his eyebrows rising as his curiosity piqued.

"Basic military training, not related to the genetics thing," she said with a shrug, still eyeing him suspiciously. "Why so curious?"

"Basic training doesn't cover what to do in a situation in which information could be compromised," he replied, frowning. "And I assume that's what you meant when you said 'no one has gotten me to talk before'. You're speaking like you've been in a war before." It would make sense to him if she had, he decided.

The next response he got came much slower and quieter than the last few; which caused him to frown at the implications. "I was in a war, once," she told him, locking eyes with him. Her eyes were deep, serious, and he would've sworn that they held all of the fires of the universe in them. "The last 'great' Time War. Nothing 'great' about it. Not that you'd remember it anyway, but I was in it. I was a commander in the military, if you didn't already guess."

Considering what his next question should be, Tony found himself wondering just how long ago this war was. He had never even heard of it, let alone the ones before it. He was also baffled by her use of the word 'last'. It was a very strange way to word her sentence. He wetted his lips before he spoke, locking eyes with her once again, "I have a lot of questions. You probably won't answer many of them. But what'd you mean by 'last'? And what kind of war was it? When was it? Were you injured in it? Are you really the age you look like?" He waited with bated breath as she took in everything he said, hoping she'd answer at least some of it.

"You're right," she told him with a smile, standing up. "I probably won't answer many of those. In fact, I don't think I'll answer any."

Tony watched her as she exited the room, hair swishing behind her, flabbergasted. He couldn't believe she had done that. She led him on up until the point that he had started asking the questions he thought were worth something, then she just walked out as if she hadn't been asked anything at all. It was frustrating to him if only for the fact that he had wanted to learn more about her species and the one they were at war with; he was curious above all else. That bothered him, but he'd never show her that it did. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to antagonize her. He was always respectful of his superiors – 'was' being the key word. Something about her made him want to act out, to try and get her to act like she had the day he met her. He was awe stricken when they met by her intelligence, her TARDIS, her sense of humor, and even her ages old wisdom… however, she now only acted in a way he could only describe as cold. It was like she gave everyone the cold shoulder.

He spent a few more minutes wondering about her and what had been said before he turned back to his notebook. He sighed as he saw the page labeled "Time Lord" and a few written on it, about her bivascular system, apparent genetic alterations, and the other about aspirin being a poison. He'd just have to find out more another day. For now he resigned himself to studying the species in the other books. He spent most of the day doing this because there were no dire situations that needed the entire team to go out.

The Commander left out a couple of times with either David or Grant for company each time. They caught a couple of Weevils, but it was a fairly calm day. Emma informed him that it was actually pretty normal for it to be that way. It wasn't often that the rift actually flared up like it had the previous day, and most of their calls were about Weevils who were harassing humans. He was fairly surprised when 7 PM rolled around. He wasn't sure whether or not he actually expected the Commander to show up again and tell him the time, but she didn't show up. He found himself walking out of the base alone, wondering where she had been.


	2. Chapter 2--Chicago Cybermen--Part 1

Note from the author:

Hello all! Thank you for taking the time to read this fanfiction. It's a bit of a rough start, but just wait until it catches its momentum. These first three chapters are set for you to begin to understand the two more important characters—Tony and the Commander. I promise all things will be answered in due time. For now, I simply ask you bear with me as we grind through these chapters together. I can readily assure you that the strangeness of the personality of the Commander will be explained within the next installment. Enjoy!

-B

The following morning Tony went through roughly the same routine as the day before. He and David met up at the same time. They rode down into the base together, chatting about idle topics until they reached the bottom. He felt like he wasn't the only one who was disappointed that the Commander wasn't on the couch waiting for them, as David seemed to deflate a bit when he saw she wasn't there. Neither of them commented on it as they went their separate ways, only promising to go and have lunch when the time came.

Tony went through what was becoming his normal routine after that: flicking the lights on in the med bay, setting his stuff aside and out of the way, grabbing a few books and setting them aside to read, taking his notebook that contained odd facts about the different alien species from the Commander…

"What?" Tony asked dumbly as he stared down at her. "Commander?"

She looked up at him from where she was laid out across the counter, only a light crinkling around her eyes showing that she was amused. "Yes, Noobie?"

"What are you doing?" he cursed himself for asking another stupid question, sitting in his chair. "Did you need something?"

"Nope," she stretched and sat up, tossing his pen at him. "Just fixed some stuff."

Eyebrows raised he opened the notebook, immediately noting the changes. He had been writing everything out in black, but now red ink was scrawled in the margins of the page in cursive. Occasionally the red ink would mark out something he had written completely. He took his time as he read through the notebook, reading the added facts from her precise hand. He was aware she was still sitting on the counter, watching him as he reviewed the new notes. He didn't care; he was going to take his time with it. She had added at least a hundred different things throughout the pages, and a lot of them included small anecdotes about how she had encountered the species at one point in time. He was going to enjoy his new reading material regardless of how fast she wanted him to read it.

"Hell," she finally murmured, exasperated. "I forgot how long it can take you humans to read. For fuck's sake, you're taking forever."

"Well, for starters, you've written quite a bit. You also included these funny little stories every so often, which I enjoy reading. I'm going to take my time so I don't miss any details. And "us humans" tend to enjoy not being insulted when they're reading what someone else wrote on one of their possessions," Tony said defensively, only glancing up at her. He couldn't pin down her personality. Yesterday she had been cold and distant, with only glimpses of how she was on the moon. Today she was impatient and sticking around him. She made little sense, but she may be doing it on purpose. He wouldn't put it past her.

Eventually, he came to the last page, the one he had marked "Time Lord." He was disappointed to find it was mostly blank. She had added a drawing of what he assumed was the organs inside of a Time Lord, with the double hearts being the only thing different. He supposed that was useful, but he had been hoping for more.

"Oh, don't look so depressed," she finally said, watching as he frowned over the last page being blank. "I wrote some on the next page. It just wasn't related to anything medical, so I figured it didn't belong on the page with that stuff."

He didn't spare her a glance as he turned the page. His eyes widened as he took in the page. It was absolutely covered in writing and drawings, from top to bottom and left to right. He even found a bit more when he turned to the next page.

"I answered some of your questions," she told him quietly, slipping onto the floor. "Just do me a favor and don't let anyone see that, okay?"

"Yeah, of course," he replied quickly, making eye contact with her for the first time. He was surprised to find that she looked _almost_ vulnerable. He took it as a good sign. It was a very typical response to have after giving someone something you deemed personal. He was proud of her, in a strange way. In three days he managed to glean some information about her people. He had a feeling some people may have been trying to get that from her for years. "Unless any of this information becomes of importance to saving your life, I won't tell a soul."

She snorted at that, shaking her head. "Yeah, whatever, serious McGhee. Look, I'm going off for a bit. I have some things I need to do. Just remember that I'm serious. Don't tell anyone. Hell, if I ask, don't even tell me. Alright?"

"Yeah, alright," he shrugged, shaking his head a bit in confusion. "I'm not sure I'm following why, but I'll not tell anyone."

"Good," she nodded, walking to the far corner of the room. Tony furrowed his brows in confusion at what she was doing until he saw her open a door on a cabinet he hadn't even paid attention to before.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked as she began to walk inside of it. He could barely stand to look at it for long, instead choosing to look at the wall beside it.

"What? Oh, right," the Commander drawled as she watched him, "There's a perception filter on this. It's just the TARDIS. C'mon, give her a look. The perception filter is quite a bit stronger than what's on the lift to get into the base, but if you give it some time you'll be able to look at it without wanting to look away."

Tony exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as he looked back at her within the perception filter. It was a lot harder than she made it sound. It felt like his eyes were wobbly, and his thoughts felt like they were slowed down. Within a few moments, though, every bad thing he had been feeling seemed to subside, and it was a lot easier to see her and the TARDIS.

"Yep. Easy," she approved before entering and shutting the door behind her. A few seconds later, it began to disappear.

Tony shook his head at her strange behavior, swiveling his chair back around to continue reading the notes she had made in his journal. He was surprised when less than a minute later the Commander barged in through the main door and sat herself on one of the beds in the room.

"What, back already?" he asked her incredulously, turning around to face her.

"What do you mean?" the Commander replied earnestly, frowning at him. "This is the first I've been in here today."

Tony frowned as she said that, furrowing his brows together. Something wasn't adding up. He turned back around and grabbed the notebook, turning to the next page. He only needed to read the first paragraph to get a basic understanding of what was going on:

"_Tony, you're probably reading this as you sit in confusion wondering why I insist I haven't visited you yet. I insist this because I haven't actually visited you in the correct order. The "me" you saw previously is actually from a couple of days in the future. The "me" you see now is the one most current to your timeline. Understand? I hope so, because it's going to be a bit tricky for you. I can't tell you what to do, specifically, but I can advise you. Time doesn't always move in a strict line, more often than not it's a bit more wobbly, like circles. Actually, no, time is nothing like circles. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but you absolutely cannot do anything to compromise time lines. It would be paradoxical. That would be bad. You need to keep the events that happened prior to your reading this to yourself. Don't let me know. I'll probably figure it out in my own time, or I'll probably try to beat it out of you. You'll figure out something. Good luck, you'll need it. –Commander"_

Tony couldn't help but to let out an aggravated sigh as he read what she had written him. She hadn't really helped him out at all. "Well, uh, Commander, I guess I was, uh, mistaken. You weren't here this morning."

The interest that was alight in the Commander's eyes was hard to miss as she observed Tony's new behavior and the book in his hands. "Oh? I wasn't? What's in your notebook?"

"Nothing! Nothing," he replied immediately, closing it and pressing it to his chest. "Nothing at all. Don't worry about it. Did you need something?"

"Yes. I need to know what's in your notebook," the Commander grinned, holding her hands out for him to give it to her.

"Uh, no can do, sorry. It's a bit personal, it'd probably bore you to death," Tony winced as he continuously spat out lies, hoping one of them would work on her. It didn't appear like she was going to accept any of them, though. She just continued to stare at him expectantly, hands outstretched. Luckily enough for him, he didn't have to continue trying to keep it from her for very long. The rift alarm began screaming through the building, making both himself and the Commander raise their eyes to where a light flashed red in the corner of the room.

"You and I can finish this later," she said to him, hopping off of the bed she was on. "Come on, it doesn't get this loud for nothing."

The relief for Tony was palpable as he followed her out of the medical room. He wasn't sure how much longer he could've kept the notebook from her. He kept it in his hands, clinging to it like his life depended on it, and he knew the Commander had observed that. She wasn't demanding it anymore, but he knew that was unlikely to last. As soon as they had figured out what was going on, resolved it, and came back to the base she'd want it, or possibly even before that. He wasn't even sure what was going on. Why did future-Commander decide he needed this, and why couldn't he tell present-Commander about it? Oh, he was going to end up with a headache before the day was over.

They arrived in the main room as the large screen on the wall began to light up, showing a map of the United States and several red flares. Tony watched it curiously as they blipped in and out of existence, wondering what was going on. (He also briefly wondered if he'd ever understand anything going on around him.)

"Commander, we've got activity all over the northern part of the states," Abigail informed her, zooming the map on the screen in to the north. "It doesn't make sense though—none of this is centralizing. There's no way all of these places are hotspots at the same time, is there?"

"I hope not," the Commander shrugged, brushing Abigail out of the way, as she began fiddling with the computer. It didn't take very long for the Commander to violently toss the wireless keyboard several feet away. "It doesn't make sense. Did you check to make sure if there's anything in our system?"

"I _would have_, but it seems my keyboard is out of commission," Abigail responded, sarcasm lacing her words.

"Well, it's a good thing I checked before I broke it," the Commander said with a sigh, leaning against the desk. "Alright, well, there are three larger hotspots. We'll break apart and go to check them out. David and Abigail get New York City; Grant and Emma get Detroit; Tony's with me in Chicago. Got it? Good. We're taking the TARDIS."

The Commander left little room to argue as she swiftly moved to the opposite side of the room, swinging open both doors of her TARDIS. The rest of Lincoln was left to gather any supplies they may need during their excursion before leaving, as the Commander had already disappeared within the depths of the TARDIS' console room. Tony just shook his head at the Commander's actions, retreating to the med bay to retrieve a bag and stuff it full of assorted medical supplies. He wasn't going to be caught without something to help treat any potential injuries. He reemerged to the main room of Lincoln to see the others piling into the TARDIS, each of them with a backpack or messenger bag attached to them as if they were used to having to quickly pack and run off. He simply trailed in behind them, wincing slightly as the door closed itself directly behind him. The others were idling nearby, staying out of the way of the Commander's rushing about in the middle of the room as she began piloting the TARDIS. Tony took this time to sit down and lean against one of the railings, pulling out his notebook to read a bit more of what the future-Commander had written him.

"_Now that you're in the TARDIS, I'm sure you'll take the opportunity to read some more of this," _the writing began, prompting Tony to inaudibly sigh at the audacity (and, he'd begrudgingly admit, correctness) of the Commander as he glanced up at her. She wasn't even looking his way. "_A lot of the things I've written in are filler—they're just there for your own entertainment. What I need you to pay attention to, not to forget, is this: I am a Time Lord. I am not a human. Do not forget that. I can handle extremes easier than you can; I can undergo more outside stimuli than humans. I do have a breaking point, as all creatures do, but that's only the point at which my body collapses. The mind of a Time Lord is infinitely larger than that of a human—"_ Tony pursed his lips at that, frowning at the hint that humans were inferior, "_—but it can be largely occupied. There may come a time when my entire being is put into a singular cause, and when that happens I won't be able to be of assistance. Under absolutely no circumstance should you choose to stay with me if your or someone else's life is endangered by my inability to move. Time Lords can die, but not in the traditional sense. We can regenerate, Tony. Regeneration is—" _

"Tony!" the Commander called, leaning around the console to see him around the glowing canister in the center, "We've landed. I'm just parking her now. You ready?"

"Uh, yeah," Tony affirmed, glancing down at the notebook in his hands in a resigned manner. He'd have to pick up where he left off a bit later, he supposed, as he stuffed it into his bag and stood up. He hadn't expected dropping off the others to take such a short amount of time. "Any idea what we're looking for?"

The Commander observed the screen hanging above her head for a few seconds before shrugging. "Not really, but that's the exciting bit, isn't it?"

"Well, I suppose. I just wish we had a bit of an idea before we go out and look," Tony told her, moving over to the doors. "I mean, it's not like we're just going to open the doors and come face-to-face with…" he stalled, noticing the peculiar look on her face as he looked back at her, "No way, really?"

"Well, you should maybe let me go out first just in case," she offered him an innocent smile as she slipped past him, gently creaking the door open to peak outside. "I sort of wasn't in the mood to wander around Chicago all day looking for something amiss; it's a pretty big area."

"So because of your own impatience you decided to land us in the middle of whatever it is we're looking for?" Tony asked her incredulously, shaking his head at the notion of it. "Isn't that a bit reckless?"

"Well, yes and no," she answered him honestly, pushing the door the rest of the way open to reveal a large tunnel. "Yes, it would be dangerous if they were online, but they aren't. We're fine."

Tony cautiously went out of the TARDIS, shutting the door behind him as he watched the Commander approach the robot-looking machine. "What is that?" he asked her, frowning as she knocked on its head to find out if it was hollow.

"Not supposed to be here, to begin with," she told him, her lips a thin line as she walked around in thought. "They're called Cybermen, though. This is an entire invading force. How did they get here? I mean, they're offline, that's obvious, but for how long? They can't stay dormant forever."

"Should we warn the others?" Tony asked immediately, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Are these things a threat?"

"Oh, most definitely," the Commander sighed, walking back to Tony. "Cybermen are a threat. They make more Cybermen through a process called "cyber –conversion," which means they take humans and strip away everything that makes them human, leaving just a brain and nervous system to control the body," she jabbed a thumb at the Cybermen surrounding them, "This lot's already been converted. They're just dormant, which is abnormal."

"Right, well, I'll call David and have him call Grant after," Tony licked his lips slightly, his mouth having gone dry as he processed what the Commander said. These "Cybermen" were, by her explanation, humans in robot shells. Tony shook his head to clear out such horrible thoughts as he pulled up David's number and called it. He put the phone up to his ear as it rang, impatiently awaiting an answer, as he watched the Commander skitter about. She clearly didn't like these Cybermen, which worried him more than he would like to admit. He was about to give up trying to call out when a sudden and piercing beeping began throughout the tunnel they were in.

"Tony, hang up that phone! Now!" the Commander shouted, rushing over to him and tugging him towards the TARDIS.

Tony fumbled the phone as he hit _end call_ just as he heard David calling out in question on the other line. "What is it? Commander!"

"_Dormant_! Won't be believing that one next time!" she yelled, throwing Tony towards the doors of the TARDIS. "Inside! Now!"

Tony pushed the doors open as he heard creaking begin all around them as the Cybermen activated, each of them beginning to advance on the pair attempting to get away.

"You will cease!" one of the Cybermen called, stepping forward from the others. "Or your companions will be _de-le-ted_!"

The Commander and Tony watched in shock as Grant and Emma were dragged into sight in the distance, behind the Cybermen. Tony glanced sidelong at the Commander, trying to judge what they were supposed to do, but only saw an impassive face with overactive eyes. She was looking at everything, he soon realized, observing it all at once in impossible speeds. He stood his ground as he awaited the Commander's decision, shutting the door of the TARDIS behind him.

The Cyberman leader moved forward, stiffly pointing one arm at the Commander. "You will comply! You will assist the Cybermen!"

The Commander noticeably exhaled as she took a step forward, putting on a more lofty appearance as she turned in circles to view all of the Cybermen. "And why, pray tell, would I do that? What use am I to you?"

"You are a Time Lord!" the Cyberman announced, enunciating each word in a metallic ringing voice, "You will be upgraded! You will be the beginning of a new era! Cybermen will rule all!"

"How, exactly, do you intend to start this new era? There's no one else; I'm the last Time Lord you'll run across," She raised an eyebrow in response, turning back to face the Cyberman. "You'll have one Time Lord-Cyberman and a million human ones… Oh. That's exactly what you want, isn't it?"

"Correct!" the Cyberman shouted, moving forward with several others. "You will assist! Your advanced knowledge will aid the Cybermen! You will be upgraded!"

She took a step back, towards Tony, warily eyeing each approaching Cyberman. "Tony, get in the TARDIS. Now. Don't argue with me."

Tony frowned, about to refuse and stay by her side, when he recalled what he had read in the notebook before. She would be able to resist this change, whatever it was, at least for a small amount of time. He bit his lip in aggravation as he looked between her and the Cybermen, shaking his head angrily. "Whatever you say, Commander," he agreed, thrusting open the doors and disappearing into the TARDIS, the doors shutting behind him. He could hear the metal footsteps outside as they got nearer. With a shaky sigh Tony leaned back against the closed doors, hating that he was completely helpless in this situation. He jumped forwards and off the door as he heard something hit against it. It sounded almost like, dare he imagine it, a body hitting the door. He grimaced as he set his resolve, opening the notebook once more. He quickly skimmed through the bits on regeneration, noting its importance but ultimately not finding it helpful for the more pressing matter, and found a more relevant passage.

"_A strong electromagnetic shock may disrupt Cyber-systems," _it read, and that was just the beginning. "_Several things can produce this. The most convenient would be found in the TARDIS. The TARDIS is sentient, Tony. A living time and spaceship. She is mildly telepathic. There are never words, but emotions or ideas can be conveyed. TARDISes are grown, not made. That may seem strange to you, but you'll have to trust that it's true."_

Tony leafed down the corner of the page he was on, looking around the interior of the TARDIS. According to what the Commander had written he could, in theory, simply ask for a device to take care of the Cybermen. With little resignation about how silly he may sound, he spoke up, "Uh, well, I sort of need a… uhm, something electromagnetic. I need something to take out the Cybermen."

He was surprised to hear a sort of groan from the TARDIS in response, jumping a little as a drawer slid open from the console. He approached it silently and removed the small glowing device from within it, turning it over in his hand. He assumed the button on top of it would, when pressed, release the charge. "Thank you," he told the TARDIS quietly, going back to the door and listening to the outside. He brushed aside how absurd it felt asking a ship for help as he heard the sounds of metal boots moving around outside of the doors. He frowned as he realized they were all around the TARDIS. He could faintly here voices outside, but the words were lost. The sounds of several explosions hitting the outside of the TARDIS caused Tony to jump back in alarm, briefly wondering if they could get in by force. He wasn't really too sure about how the TARDIS worked to begin with, but since he was going to be stuck in here for a few more moments he decided to see if the Commander had written any notes about it.

"_TARDIS—time and relative dimensions in space. Completely organic, not just a machine. Shields capable of keeping out all but the strongest of weapons (most used by Daleks.) The shields also block most outside signals, if programmed correctly. Occasionally decides to act of its own accord…"_

Tony looked up from his reading as the sounds of the Cybermen trying to get in ceased. He pocketed the notebook and moved back to the door, briefly considering just storming out and using the little device he gripped tightly in his left hand. He held it up in front of him, turning it over in his hand. He wasn't exactly sure how to use it. There are a button on what he assumed to be the top of it, but it was mostly just a plain metal canister. There were two numbers scratched into the side of it—15/20—but he had no idea what they meant. How many of the Cybermen could this thing take out at once was definitely a more important question to be asked. The next important question would be why he was the hidden away in the TARDIS to take on an army by himself. It was just his first week on the job, and he was already in way over his head.


	3. Chapter 2--Chicago Cybermen--Part 2

_Finally, the end of the exciting 2 part Cybermen chapter! Enjoy!_

* * *

Metallic stomping rang throughout the old stone tunnel as the Commander surveyed the area. Her face, although mostly impassive, had slight tells of what her current state of mind was. The slight twitch of her nose as she detected a subtle yet distinct odor of oil; the gentle raise of her eyebrow as she glanced sidelong at the uncharacteristically silent humans walking beside her … the tell-tale signs of a suspicious and wary Time Lord.

"You know…" her voice rang out among the echoing boot steps, "If you're gonna take me to your base, the least you could do is tell me your plan and how you're going to execute it."

"The Time Lord will be silent!" the leader of her escort commanded, neither stopping nor turning around to acknowledge she had spoken up.

"Right," she murmured, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her coat, her sharp blue eyes glancing around at her captors, "why should I have expected it to have been that easy? I mean, it's not like you're still human. You won't go spilling your whole life story to me."

The most she could do at this point was go along with them. It had been her hope that the TARDIS would have initiated any of its emergency protocols to take it away from the possible threat of being used by the Cybermen, but it hadn't moved an inch after she had pushed Tony into it. So now not only did she have to worry about the fact that these Cybermen had what she assumed were perfect holograms of two of her team, she also had to worry about Tony leaving the TARDIS and being a fool. It was pretty obvious, she thought, that Grant and Emma were nothing more than holograms walking beside of her. There was a very wobbly look to them if one looked hard enough, and she wouldn't even start on the stench of electricity around them.

It wasn't very long until the hallway they had been traversing turned a corner and opened up into a large chamber, full of Cybermen clambering around. The Commander stopped short as she gave the room a look over, thoroughly surprised at the sheer number of Cybermen within the confines of the rock walls. There were several working in tandem along the back wall of the chamber, mining away a wall and removing rocks as they fell from a structure buried within it. The rest were busily wiring up several conversion machines along the remaining walls. In the center of the room was perhaps the most extravagant piece of junk the Commander had ever seen. She gave a low, sharp whistle as she examined it from top to bottom. It was, as the rest of the room's inhabitants and machinery, a metallic silver in color; several cords were sticking in and out of the sides of it in various sizes, and occasionally a small open-air circuit board would shoot of several sparks before calming down again. At its base was a crude contraption that, at its best, could barely even be considered a chair. There were several iron bars sticking out from the sides of it, and hanging directly above it was a small bowl-shaped contraption with several needles and cords dropping out of its center.

Her observation of the room was cut short as two of her Cyber captors grabbed either of her arms with bruising force and began dragging her forwards, towards the center of the room. "What on Earth is that mess?" she asked them as she was dragged along, not even trying to gain her footing again to walk on her own.

Without answering, as she figured, the Cybermen stopped abruptly and forcefully threw her forwards. The Commander barely kept herself from stumbling into a new Cyberman as it emerged from behind the crude device in the center of the room. Quickly taking a step back, and then another one forward as she found the two Cybermen at her back had moved towards her, the Commander crossed her arms as her face scrunched up in confusion. The creature before her was like no other Cyberman she had ever seen before. Instead of the plain silver exterior as the others in the room bore, this Cyberman was golden. That alone caused her eyebrows to noticeably raise as she gave it another once over, from head to toe. There was nothing considerably different except for its apparent golden shell.

"Time Lord," the golden Cyberman curtly spat out, taking a step forwards and outstretching its arm towards her, "You will finish the construction of the Mega Converter. You will work for the Cybermen, and then you will lead the Cybermen!"

The Commander leaned back slightly, away from the outstretched hand of the golden Cyberman. A smirk painted itself upon her thin lips as she raised an eyebrow in response, once again glancing up at the machine hanging above them. "Why should I? I see no reason for me to do either of these things. There's no benefit for me. And what about you, huh? What are you? Why are you made out of gold? I thought the Cybermen of Mondas were allergic to gold."

"We have overcome such inane allergies!" the golden Cyberman shouted out, withdrawing its arm from its close proximity to the Commander. "We are the perfect race! The Cybermen are pure! The Cybermen of old are nothing compared to us! You will aid us, and then you will lead us! If you refuse, your companions will be de-le-ted!"

The golden Cyberman gestured towards the left side of the room, and the coy look on the Commander's face fell sharply as she realized exactly how the Cybermen had been able to create such convincing holograms. She knew why they had beforehand. It only made sense to use fake hostages in order to make sure your real hostages didn't escape. She had done that before.

Along the wall, each in their own Cyber Conversion Chamber, was each member of Lincoln, minus Tony. None of them were conscious, but each of them were completely wired into their Chamber. It would take only a flick of the robotic wrist for the Conversion Process to begin. She mentally cursed herself as she looked back at the golden Cyberman in front of her, her eyes burning with the very essence of danger.

Her voice was very quiet as she spoke, her features stormy as she took a step towards the Cyberman. "If you so much as place a single, cold, metal finger on them I will make sure you regret it. Do you understand me? I will ensure you regret it."

The golden Cyberman did not waiver as it watched her with its empty eye slots. It instead moved to the left by a few feet, motioning stiffly towards the contraption that was once behind it. "You will do as we command! Cybermen do not take orders from Time Lords!"

The Commander, her lips still pursed in her silent anger, snapped her eyes between the golden Cyberman, the machine, and her team. She knew that the Cybermen had her at a disadvantage, but she was also aware of what she would be helping them to build. A fully operational Conversion factory, with her as the template. It was almost completed already, it just lacked the proper coding and wiring for a Time Lord instead of a human. There was precious little she could do in the way of sabotaging a machine that was already this close to being completed.

With a final, resigned exhale, the Commander turned her attention back to the golden Cyberman. "I'm going to need some tools," she told it, removing her fedora and tossing it on the floor behind her as she moved towards the machine's main circuit board to have a better look at what had been done already.

The only thing she could do now was hope that maybe, by some outlandish luck, that her new doctor would be able to pull off a miracle. Or at least distract them long enough for her to do something. Either would be nice, but until then she resigned herself to working idly on the machine and contemplating the oddness of that golden Cyberman.

Meanwhile, some four hundred odd feet down the very corridor the Commander had previously been taken down, was Tony. The tall doctor had emerged from the TARDIS not long after he had decided a decent amount of time had gone by, and had been slowly and quietly making his way along the tunnels. In the distance he could hear the sounds of machinery and the the sounds of soulless voices echoing down towards him. Against his best judgement he decided that would be exactly where the Commander would be, and that was where he should be headed.

He still had absolutely no idea what to do with the device the TARDIS had given him. He had tried to look for a way to use it, but the button on the top of the device was stuck and wouldn't press in. The only thing that kept it from just being an entirely boring metallic canister was the etching on the side. 15/20. No matter how much thought he put to those numbers he always came back empty handed. The Commander wouldn't have told him to get this device, claiming it was electromagnetic and would disrupt the systems of the Cybermen, and then have it just turn out completely useless. Would she?

He was leaning more towards the yes side of that question as he continued down the dimly lit tunnel. He wasn't sure if it was just dumb luck or if it was a trap, but he had yet to run across any Cybermen. The tunnel soon had a turn in it, and instead of just blindly going around it Tony sidled up against the wall and peered around. There was a large opening not far from him, and inside of that was a large number of Cybermen. He couldn't see all around the room, but judging by the amount of noise and commotion going on he could assume there were at least one hundred there.

He hurriedly backed away from the curve in the tunnel and into the shadows of the walls, pulling the notebook with the Commander's writing in it out to see what he was supposed to do. He still had no idea how to use the electromagnetic device, but maybe that she had written out instructions on its use in his journal.

_"Well, I'd say by now you're fairly close to the main chamber,"_ it began, causing Tony to shake his head again at how well the Commander had written her words to the timing with which he read it, _"And you're probably wondering what to do with that little device I had you get from the TARDIS. Well, to be frank with you, there's nothing you can do. If I'm correct, the charge on that is 15/20, and it will need to be exposed to a high dosage of electricity before it's useable again. Sorry. Oh, and Tony? Duck."_

Immediately after finishing the last line of what the Commander had written Tony took to the floor, covering his head as rocks and dust splattered across the floor and himself. Scrambling across the floor to get away from the Cybermen he hadn't even heard approach him Tony lost his grip on the device, causing it to roll across the floor and behind the Cybermen. He watched it as it made its escape from him and cursed himself for his clumsiness, getting back onto his feet. Tony regained his footing as his Cybermen assailants were temporarily distracted by the canister clinking past them and ran several feet away, stopping only to watch as one of the Cybermen bent and picked up the device.

As soon as the Cyberman straightened itself and held the canister up to view it several loud beeps began emitting from the uncharged cylinder. The Cybermen turned to Tony as the beeping continued to grow in intensity, one of them holding a hand out towards him. Tony slowly backed away, unwilling to go without the device but also knowing that whatever he did he should not let the Cybermen touch him.

"Get back!" Tony shouted at them, his eyes never wavering off of them as he continued his retreat. "Or I'll… I'll throw this book at you!" Not the most threatening thing to say, surely, but that was all he had.

The Cybermen didn't miss a beat at his weak threat, continuing to move towards him until the canister suddenly made a single, shrill beep. In that instant several things happened at once, and Tony was altogether unsure of what had happened. There was an insanely bright flash of light as one Cyberman fell to the floor, lifeless, and then there was a second flash of electricity as remaining Cyberman also clanked onto the ground. Tony staggered backwards slightly as he rubbed at his eyes, trying to clear away the black spots from the sudden brightness. He could hear more stomping coming from the direction of the chamber. As his eyesight began to clear up he was surprised to see the lifeless heaps of Cybermen laying at his feet, the now empty again electromagnetic canister once again on the floor. Tony carefully stepped over the legs of one of the fallen Cybermen to retrieve it, holding it up to view the numbers etched into the side again. He shook his head as he saw that it still read as 15/20, wondering what the hell had happened. To him it looked like it took the energy from the one Cybermen, killed it, and used that energy to make a pulse to take out the second one.

He was abruptly brought out of his train of thought as a squad of Cybermen appeared from around the bend of the tunnel, the one in the lead different from the rest and seemingly made out of gold. He quickly began backpedaling again, only to run directly into a separate squad of Cybermen behind him. Gritting his teeth Tony moved forward again, out of the reach of the squad behind him but closer to the approaching squad in front of him.

"I'll use this! Don't think I won't!" he shouted at them, waving the canister around at them in what he felt was a menacing manner. "It did a wonder on your buddies!"

A familiar shock of blonde hair caught Tony's attention as the Commander was forcefully shoved out from behind the golden Cyberman, her face showing every amount of amusement she felt. "Oh, really? Like how you were gonna use your notebook on them? Yeah, I'm sure that would've taught them a lesson."

Tony groaned as he lowered the canister in defeat, shaking his head. The Commander had greasy stains across her forearms and hands and her hair had been pulled back away from her face with some sort of copper wire. "Well, you've been busy and I've had to improvise."

"Right, improvise with a battery," the Commander remarked as she looked at the device before rolling her eyes as she looked back at the golden Cyberman warily.

"A battery?" Tony asked, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked between her and the Cyberman behind her. "But I thought it was-"

"It's a highly volatile battery and without a conductor to regulate the electricity you're lucky you've yet to die," the Commander quickly interrupted him, her attention back on him instead of the five Cybermen at her back. "And it's exactly what I need to get the Mega Converter to working condition." She held her freehand out to receive it from him, her other one was full of assorted wires of different coloring, offering him a slight smirk and a wink.

Tony opened his mouth to speak again but promptly shut it as the Commander winked at him. He was utterly confused, but handed the 'battery' to her nonetheless.

The Commander gave him a small nod as he did, taking it and turning back to the golden Cyberman. "Now, let's get back to my work, shall we? You can bring him along and put him with the others."

"Cybermen do not take orders from Time Lords!" the golden Cyberman shouted once again, mechanically stepping out of the way of the Commander as she began moving back towards the main chamber. "Put him into the chair!"

"The chair?" the Commander repeated, turning around sharply to glare at the golden Cyberman, her ponytail whipping through the air as she did. "That's the stupidest thing you've said so far. I'll need an extra set of hands if I'm going to be able to correctly attach the battery to the Converter. And I do assume you want it done correctly?"

"Your assumption is correct," the golden Cyberman announced after a few seconds, its metallic voice echoing off of the stone walls around them.

"Good. Come along, Tony," she quipped after her miniscule victory, shrugging a shoulder in the direction of the main chamber and indicating for him to follow her. "I've been hooking up their Cyber Converter for them. It's a heap of junk, but with this baby," she gently shook the 'battery' in her left hand, "I should get it up and running in no time."

"And this is a good thing?" he asked her suspiciously, quickening his pace to stride up beside of her and get a better look at her face. "You want to help them with their Cyber Converter?"

"Well," she said, coming off as every ounce of the affable engineer, "It is quite the interesting project. I also have little to no choice in the matter." They entered the main chamber and the Commander's eyes immediately went over to where the rest of Lincoln was tied into Conversion Chambers along the wall before glancing at the back wall where several Cybermen still worked to remove the stone. When she was satisfied nothing had changed she continued on her path towards the middle of the room.

Tony followed the Commander's gaze to where the rest of Lincoln was bound and unconscious, and briefly considered leaving their current guard and going to check on them. They didn't seem to be really hurt though, and it seemed like a terrible idea to try to do anything other than what the Commander had specified. She knew more about what was going on than he did, though he was unsure of her intentions with the 'Cyber Converter'.

Being led to the center of the room by the Commander towards the chamber with the crude looking Converter, Tony found himself agreeing with her 'heap of junk' assessment, as the Commander knelt beside of an open panel in the chair. Tony got down beside of her after looking around the room full of Cybermen, realizing how much they were really outnumbered by, and instead turned his attention to what she was doing. She was nearly elbow deep into the device, twisting her arm every few seconds, and he could hear the hiss of electricity as she worked. Overall, it seemed like a very not safe thing to stick her hand into.

"You're sure you know what you're doing?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow at her as she turned to look at him. "It doesn't sound too good."

"Well of course not," she retaliated, rolling her eyes and turning back to the task at hand. "I mean, I do know what I'm doing. But it probably will never sound 'good'. I'm switching the template over to one more agreeable to with the Time Lord biology. I really just lack the proper amount of electricity at this point."

"What happened to the 'battery' idea?" Tony questioned, glancing down at the canister she had propped up against the chair.

"Still applicable," she promised him, offering him another wink as she stuck her head into the chair to look down below it. "D'you happen to have a flashlight?"

"Sorry, no," he shook his head and leaned back on the balls of his feet, looking around the room once more. If he didn't know any better, he'd say they were digging up a spaceship along the far wall. Actually, for all he knew, they could've been doing just that.

Several minutes went by in silence as the Commander worked inside of the chair and Tony observed the goings-on of the chamber. Occasionally Tony would glance at the Commander, realize she was waist deep into the chair with her _derrière*_ directly at his eye level and quickly look away again, embarrassed because of his natural reaction to being faced with such a womanly trait. Physically attractive or not, he wasn't about to fool himself into thinking she was anything more than the only person -alien?- that could get them out of this situation.

His eyes soon landed on the rest of Lincoln, hooked up within Conversion Chambers along the wall to his right. "Are they alright?" he asked the Commander, briefly glancing back at her before returning once more to looking over each of the others.

The Commander pulled herself out of the innards of the mechanical chair and sat back on her knees, wiping make believe sweat off of her forehead as she too looked at the others. "Yeah," she affirmed, picking up the 'battery' she had placed against the side of the chair. "Any second now."

As if on cue, Tony saw the first signs of movement coming from within David's chamber, followed shortly by a 'what the hell'. He would've gotten up to go and see if they were alright if the Commander hadn't grabbed him by his shirt sleeve with a shake of the head. "You have to at least look like you're helping me or they'll strap you in to this chair. Which'll kill you as soon as I get it working. Really though, your choice."

He shook his head exasperatedly at her, settling back down onto his knees beside of her. "I'd rather not, thanks," he mumbled, watching curiously as she began wiring the 'battery' into several wires coming out of the chair.

"Commander? Tony?" David tentatively called out as he located them, glancing from them to the still waking up people beside of him. "What the hell is going on?"

"Why don't you tell me?" the Commander responded, leaning around Tony to get a better look at David and the others. "Last I checked you all were quite a ways from here."

"Yeah," he affirmed, pulling against one of the straps holding his arms to the machine, "We had just started looking around when Tony called. We figured something had gone wrong when I heard you shouting at him to turn his phone off, but before we could really do anything about it those robots came out of nowhere and grabbed us."

The Commander shrugged at his story thus far, having expected as much, and turned back to her work. "I'm guessing it's the same for you all, then?" she asked, rolling her eyes as she got three groggy responses of 'yes'. "Still doesn't explain how you got to Chicago so quickly."

When David, Grant, Emma, and Abigail all didn't respond the Commander simply groaned in frustration. Tony watched on as tugged on the wires attached to the top of the device she was holding, trying to think of a way to help.

"Teleport?" Tony asked finally, catching the Commander's eyes as she looked up at him in surprise. "I mean, it sort of makes sense, if there is such a thing, and …"

"No, no," she quickly recovered, shaking her head. "You're right. Teleport makes sense. But teleport also means there are possibly Cybermen in Chicago, Detroit, and the Big Apple. That's sort of really not very good."

Tony blinked at the realization, nodding slowly. "Yeah, only sort of really not very good," he mimicked, arousing a small curve of the Commander's lips in response to his sarcasm.

"Oh shutup," she mock ordered him, stuffing the now completely wired up canister into the chair and shutting the panel over it. "I've been very clever over the past hour. So do exactly as the Cybermen say. Got it?" she asked him as the golden one began to move towards them, quickly offering him a wink that obviously said 'or, you know, don't do as they say and free the others when they're distracted'.

"You have completed your task!" the Cyberman shouted at the Commander as she stood to face it, one golden arm outstretched towards her.

"Yes, yes, of course I have," she remarked, pretending to flip hair away from her face in a dramatic motion. "And it took me days less in time than you. So much for Cybermen superiority," she scoffed, watching the Cyberman carefully as it was flanked by two others. "Tony, go stand by the others for a while."

He had a fleeting thought to disobey her, but watching as she took her hair down from its impromptu ponytail and wrapping the same copper wire that had held it around her finger made him realize she must have had some sort of plan. Her pale blonde hair fell past her shoulders as it was released, momentarily obscuring her face from his vision until she turned her head to give him a stern look. Shaking out of his momentary stupor Tony headed across the room, skirting around the Cybermen that ignored him to watch what was going on the center of the room, and stood by David's Conversion Chamber. The brown haired man eyed him curiously for a moment before turning his attention back to the Commander and her conversation with the golden Cyberman.

Tony turned around in time to watch as the Cybermen that had come up behind the golden one moved forwards and grabbed the Commander, dragging her around to the front of the chair and forcing her to sit in it.

"I just told you I'm not sure if it'll work correctly or not, but you're still going to do it?" he heard the Commander ask as the golden Cyberman moved from her to a console sticking down from the top of the Mega Converter.

"Time Lord trickery will not help you here," the Cyberman replied, its metallic voice ringing out as if it had shouted instead of merely spoken. "We have seen the results of your work. The CyberShip is again operational."

"So you were digging up a ship," the Commander acknowledged briefly, trying to turn around within the chair she had been forced to sit in to see it. "So what? Were you lot all dormant until the Windy City up above you got a little to electrical? Did you get a nice shock for an awakening?"

"Silence!" the golden Cyberman shouted at her instead of answering, causing both the Commander and Tony to roll their eyes simultaneously.

"Alright, whatever you say," the Commander replied sweetly, "but don't claim that you weren't warned about the Converter not working properly. I did tell you."

"Restrain the Time Lord! There is no time for any Time Lord treachery!" it shouted, causing the two Cybermen that had placed her there to move forward and begin bending the iron bars sticking out of the chair around the Commander's torso, arms, and legs.

"I somehow saw that coming," she remarked, leaning forwards to test the strength of the bars now holding her to the chair. "But really, there's no need to restrain me. I've been very good fixing your toy for you. I even told you that it may still be brok-"

She was cut off as a third Cyberman approached her from behind, forcing her head backwards against the cold headrest of the chair and wrapping another iron bar around her forehead to keep her in place. She rolled her eyes as she was forced to sit completely straight in the chair, the bowl with needles hanging out of it beginning to lower towards her as she glanced to her right to see if Tony had done as she had hinted and began working on a way to free the others as she kept the Cybermen occupied. He was bent over his notebook, busily reading whatever was written there, causing the Commander to curiously raise an eyebrow. She'd have to inquire more about that notebook soon. If her guess was right, it was also how he had known where to find her little electromagnet, and it was why he had insisted she had visited him twice that morning. She did love skirting around and almost creating universe ripping paradoxes.

Turning her attention back to the matter at hand as she felt the beginnings of needles scraping across her scalp she noticeably exhaled, looking to her left and at the golden Cyberman. "You never did tell me why you're made out of gold."

"I am Cyber-Commander Zheng!" it yelled out after several seconds of silence, moving towards where she was bound in the chair. "Mondas has been lost, but the Cybermen continue! We will convert the humans of Earth into Cybermen, and we will control this planet! A new Mondas will be created, and with it we can begin systematic conversion of all life!"

"Zheng?" the Commander repeated, her eyes locked with the empty slots of the Cyberman's face. "I was fairly certain you had been destroyed quite a long time ago, along with Mondas."

"The Doctor is not as perfect as he believes! He is not a Cyberman!" Zheng responded, moving back away from her and to the console it had left.

"You're all based off of him, aren't you?" she asked, glancing back towards Tony to see if he had begun freeing David, Grant, Emma, and Abigail. She locked eyes with him momentarily, allowing him to wink at her for a change, before turning her attention back to Zheng. "At least, the newer ones are. You may not be. Weren't you one of the first?"

"Silence!" Zheng commanded, pressing several buttons on the console in front of him and causing several systems around the room to light up simultaneously.

"And you still didn't explain the gold thing," she reminded the Cyberman, going cross-eyed as a blade dropped down to hang in front of her face. She looked away from it to Zheng, pursing her lips in confusion as he stood there, momentarily stilled.

"When the Doctor failed to destroy me fully I rebuilt myself with the most readily available substance!" Zheng spoke at least, coming out of his momentary suspension.

"Yeah? How well did that go over?" the Commander asked him, trying to move her face slightly further away from the dangling blade. "Because, it seems to me, like you might not have completely succeeded. There's something not quite right about you."

"There were complications," Zheng amended, moving from the console to the chair with the Commander. "They will be remedied when you are introduced into the system, Time Lord. Your tertiary lobe, in addition to the Doctor's, will make Cybermen more efficient than ever!"

"Oh, well, this is a very barbaric way to go about adding my lobe to this whole equation," she said offhandedly, slowly and carefully unraveling the copper cord from around her ring finger of her left hand. "And I thought I was meant to lead you, not be killed."

"You will lead us! You and I will become one in the same, Time Lord! With your mind and my perfections, I will be able to lead the Cybermen to victory!" Zheng moved behind her, inputting his hand into an open slot in the back of the chair. "Begin the process!"

Suddenly the machine spurred into life, the blade that had been hanging limply in front of the Commander shooting out into the air before turning to aim at her head. She grimaced as she quickly stuck the piece of copper wire into the machine beneath her hand, wiggling it around until it made contact with the other wire she had placed there. "And STOP the process!" she shouted, wincing away as the blade dropped back down from its position and nearly sliced her cheek.

"What sort of treachery is this?" Zheng demanded, removing his hand from the chair and moving around to view her.

"Well, I did tell you it would possibly not work," she offered him lamely, grinning at him. "Also, did I mention the charging electromagnetic field generator in the bottom of the chair? Because, if I didn't, I'm sorry. Well, not really."

Zheng took a step sharply back from the Commander as a crackling noise began beneath her, "You will cease! Or your companions will be _de-le-ted!_"

"It's like a broken record with you, isn't it?" the Commander asked him as the crackling grew in intensity, a bright glow beginning to emit from the confines of the chair in which the Commander was strapped to. "I'm not sorry for you, by the way. I'm sorry for draining the power from Chicago in order to do this," she finished as a shrill noise emitted throughout the entire room as it was overtaken in a field of electromagnetic activity.

All around the room the sound of Cybermen rhythmically dropping onto the hard ground echoed, causing the Commander to give a miniscule 'whoop' for her success. "Alright, Tony! Get them out of there!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Tony shouted back at her, suddenly energized from the realization of the Commander's plan. He ran to a console not far from David's Conversion Chamber and began pressing several different buttons, all of which labeled with symbols he didn't understand but had drawn out in his notebook from the Commander. As soon as he pressed the last key several hissing noises began, the restraints loosening off of the Lincoln team.

"That was amazing!" David shouted as he pulled himself out of the loosened straps, making his way over the piles of Cybermen towards the Commander. "How long had you been working on that plan?"

"Hour to hour and a half," she said lightly with an attempted shrug. "It didn't really solidify until I saw Tony with the electromagnet."

"You're welcome," Tony called over to them as he continued down the line, releasing Grant, Emma, and Abigail.

"I didn't say thank you!" the Commander replied, pulling against the iron bars holding her against the chair again. "You know, I think there may be a snag in my plan."

"You're kidding me," David rolled his eyes as he moved forward to tug against the bars. "Oh, you're not kidding me," he amended sheepishly as she gave him an mock-annoyed glare. "Anything in the TARDIS that I could use to cut these?"

"Through that tunnel; once you're in the TARDIS it's down the hallway, second door on the right," the Commander affirmed, "Basic supply closet. You'll know it when you see it. Though… it's a bit…"

"Bigger on the inside?" David guessed, earning another attempted shrug from the Commander. "Well, c'mon then, Grant. You too, Emma and Abi. We'll do better if we all look for it."

"And me?" Tony questioned, moving up to stand around with the others. "You're not leaving me with the Commander, are you? I can barely stand her when she's not stuck in a chair."

Tony's attempt at humor earned its several chuckles as the rest of Lincoln began moving their way around the Cybermen corpses to the tunnel the Commander and Tony had come through. It was the least he could try to do after seeing how both Abigail and Emma had been acting since their release. Admittedly, they were trapped in a Conversion Chamber and could have been made into Cybermen at any given time. In Tony's book they had a right to be a bit frightened.

"It was a decent try," the Commander commended him as the others turned the corner down the tunnel. "But those two have been having doubts for a while. They won't say it -not yet, anyway- but I think this lifestyle is starting to get to them a little."

"What, this?" Tony asked lightly, looking around the room at the motionless sea of silver. "Walk in the park."

The Commander smirked at his joke, once again tugging against the bars holding her to the seat. "You're outstandingly accepting of any situation thrown your way, Anthony."

"So?" he responded quickly, turning back to look at her. "How is that bad? I saw it happening. I couldn't change that."

"No," the Commander agreed, locking eyes with him, "but there's just something about you. It's not important right now. How about you show me that book of yours?"

Tony blinked in confusion at her statement, but reached into his med bag and removed the notebook anyway. He opened to the page he was on and then turned it, but saw it was blank. He must have finished all of her helpful notes. "Well," he began, looking down at it again, "There's nothing else in it. I'm not sure what to do. It said at the beginning to keep you from reading any of it."

"Yes, because if I had read it, written by my own hand, it would've created fixed points in time. If you had told me anything from it, it would have created a fixed point in time. That's not necessarily bad, unless it's something like 'oh, yeah, I have to break a wrist getting out of the chair trap' or something dumb like that," she rambled, glancing between him and the book. "Because if you told me something like that, it'd make it fixed, and I'd have no choice but to break my wrist. Make sense?"

"Sure…" Tony nodded, shutting the book again. "I suppose you'll need to see this to take it to me in the past, though."

"That's correct. How'd you know that?" the Commander asked him suspiciously, raising a single eyebrow as she looked him over.

"I sort of inferred it," he rebuttled, exasperated. "Do you have to be so suspicious of everything?"

"Yes-" she began, but stopped suddenly as she heard an ominous whistle of air from behind her. "Tony, what is that?"

Tony, swallowing the sudden lump in his throat, moved around beside of her. "You've got to be kidding me," he echoed David's earlier words, watching as steam vented from a slot in the golden Cyber-Commander Zheng. "There's some sort of steam coming out of the gold one."

"Get away from it, Tony," the Commander told him calmly, "and find something solid to hit him with when he wakes up. I thought that might happen."

"Wait, you knew this could happen but still let everyone else leave?" Tony attempted to reprimand her, moving away from Zheng to search for something to hit him with. "It'd be nice if you'd let us in on your plans and thoughts sometime."

"Gold is a pretty malleable metal. I figured you could handle that," she offered with another attempt at a shrug. "Zheng is a different sort of Cyberman, pretty sturdy to have survived so far. I really can't wait to get out of this chair."

"I couldn't imagine why," Tony said, distracted by his search for anything to whack Zheng with. "It looks so comfortable."

The whistling noise from Zheng started to die down as Tony continued his search, causing both him and the Commander to glance in the direction of where their golden enemy was located. Searching with more fervor as he realized that Zheng had begun to clamber to his feet Tony soon realized he was searching in vain. Amidst the scraps of Cybermen throughout the chamber there was scarcely even a pebble.

"We may have an issue with plan A," he announced as he turned a complete circle to view the room once more.

"You're kidding me," the Commander spat, mimicking the euphemism that both Tony and David had used. "Tear an arm off of one of the dead ones!" she ordered quickly as she heard Zheng stand completely.

"The Time Lord will be _de-le-ted_ for its insolence!" Zheng's robotic voice shouted out, echoing loudly around the room.

"Any time now!" she yelled at Tony as she saw Zheng's golden hand come into her peripheral vision, poised very straightly and most definitely charged up with enough electricity to kill her when it touched her.

_CLANG!_ rang out throughout the room as the Commander saw first Zheng's arm and then the rest of him as he fell beside the chair she was imprisoned on, a solid dent in the back of his head. The weapon used for it, a steel arm, was tossed onto Zheng's body as Tony walked around into view.

"Could you have been any slower?" the Commander exhaled, and she would have accompanied it with a shake of her head if she wasn't still attached to the damned chair.

"The way I see it," Tony told her, relieved that he had actually stopped Zheng, "this is twice now that I've done that."

"Are we going to start a tally?" she countered, though a smile graced her lips. "Because I bet once we start getting into all of the things I've done to inadvertently-"

"I'm back!" came a shout from the front of the chamber, causing both Tony and the Commander to jump. "No need to be so surprised," David added, walking up to them with a small laser hacksaw in his hand. "Grant's staying with the girls in the TARDIS. They didn't really like the whole 'kidnapped by Cybermen and stuck in a Conversion Chamber' thing."

"I noticed," the Commander sighed, looking from Tony to David. "It'll just have to be monitored for now. So what are you waiting for? Cut me out of this."

"Yes, your majesty," David mock saluted her with the sawblade before moving forward to the edge of the chair where the bar connected to the rest of it. "Is there anything else her majesty wishes?"

"Shut up, David," the Commander and Tony said simultaneously, causing Tony to scrunch his face in confusion and the Commander to raise an eyebrow.

"Jesus, I leave you two alone for ten minutes and you start talking alike," David commented, shaking his head. "What's next?"

The Commander shrugged her now free left shoulder, a smirk on her lips as she regarded the two humans in her company. "Who knows? For now we just need to get out of here before it blows up."

"Before it what?" David and Tony asked together, looking at the Commander in alarm.

"Blows up._ Kaboom_," she repeated, adding an onomatopoeia for good measure. "After the initial blast I set up a delay for an explosion. Unless you wanted to keep an operational Conversion Factory below Chicago?"

"No. Not at all," David covered up, going back to his work on the bars with more_ oomph_ in it.

"Really, you need to work on letting us know what you're going to do before you do it," Tony added, shaking his head. "Especially if you're going to blow up the place we're currently standing in."

"I just told you with eight minutes to spare. That's plenty of time once he gets my arms freed," the Commander grinned at him, and Tony couldn't help but to grin back.

"You're both crazy," David piped up, shaking his head exasperatedly, even though he had the smallest of smiles. "Absolutely insane."

"You've apparently known this for a while, yet you're still here, cutting me out of a tough situation yet again," the Commander recalled, eliciting a larger smile from David.

"Someone has to be around to keep you out of trouble, right, Tony?" David questioned, winking at Tony with a grin.

"Oh, yes, definitely," Tony agreed, crossing his arms over his chest. "What would you ever do without us?"

"Probably be stuck in a chair, beneath a Cyber Converter, and be blown into smithereens?" the Commander guessed earnestly, furrowing her eyebrows in thought.

"Exactly," David concurred after several seconds of silence, shaking his head again. "Now sit still so I can cut you out of this and we can go home."

Three minutes later the Commander was on her feet again, twisting her back around to loosen it up. She took the hacksaw from David with a grin, looking between the two humans. "Well," she began, motioning to the entrance of the tunnel, "by my count we have four and a half to five minutes remaining. So… Run!"

That was all the incentive either David or Tony needed to start running down into the tunnel and back to the TARDIS, the Commander easily surpassing them as they got closer to their destination. She swung the door open for them and stood outside of it, ushering them inside before going in herself.

"Hold onto something! This is gonna be rocky!" the Commander shouted as she ran to the center of the TARDIS, pushing buttons, pulling levers, and twisting random nozzles. The explosion rattled the outside of the TARDIS as it began to fade away, causing the Commander to slide a little as she ran around the console and the rest of Lincoln to hold on even tighter to whatever railing they had found. A few seconds later the shaking of the TARDIS became less violent and began to even out to its normal amount of bumpiness as the Commander continued making her rounds at the console.

"Commander," David spoke up, releasing his grip on a handrail and walking closer to the center of the room, "what about the Cybermen who got us out of Detroit and New York City?"

"Oh," the Commander said, as if it had been a thought of hers once and had gone away already, "I thought you already figured that out. The teleports were on the Cybermen themselves, but it only worked between them and that ship. They were all accounted for at the main site, though. They needed a full force to begin the Conversions, so they couldn't afford to have any groups separated."

"That makes enough sense," David acknowledged with a shrug, making his way to where Emma, Abigail, and Grant were; near to the door.

Tony watched David as he went to the others and joined their quiet conversation, frowning slightly as he glanced at the Commander, who was acting like she hadn't noticed. He watched them for only a second longer before turning to the middle of the room and walking over to the console, leaning up against it. "So, what next?"

"Next?" the Commander asked him, raising an eyebrow in question. "We're headed back to headquarters. David will have to file a report on the city-wide blackout I caused in Chicago, the explosion that probably showed up on Richter scales, and the Cybermen. Grant will hang around with David for a while before heading to his apartment. Emma and Abigail will leave together and probably have dinner at some little cafe. You'll disappear into medical for a while before you realize you've lost track of time, and then you'll head home for the night. David will probably leave shortly before you. Why?"

Tony raised his eyebrow in response to her, shaking his head. "That was very detailed. And what will you be doing?"

A lopsided smile found its way onto her face as she moved by him, pulling an orange lever down from its up position. "Probably find some sort of trouble to get into. Maybe follow you back to your home, discreetly, to find out where it is," she said bluntly, locking her blue eyes with his brown momentarily. "Is that a problem?"

"Nope," Tony replied simply, standing up off of the console as he felt it stop shaking. "Have we landed, then?" he asked, looking from her to the doors.

"Yep," the Commander nodded. "We've landed," she called out to the others, who began filing out of the TARDIS shortly after. She kept circling the console, occasionally flipping a switch or twisting a knob until she noticed Tony was still there. "Aren't you going?"

"What are you going to do about the others?" he asked her, dropping his flippant attitude for a more serious one. "Abigail and Emma seem to be having some issues."

"I am aware," the Commander responded in a similar manner, looking from him to the open door, "and I am going to do nothing. Now give me that notebook of yours so I can make sure your past self gets the same notes."

He nodded, reaching into the bag he had full of assorted medical supplies and pulling it out. He handed it to her, watching as she flipped it open and read it with interest.

"This probably helped out a lot," she finally said, looking up from the notebook to Tony. "I'll make sure the younger you gets it. But, well, I'm not going to bother writing it out a second time. So I'm using this one. I'll get the clean one to bring to you from the past."

Tony slowly drooped his eyebrows in confusion before shaking his head. "Whatever, Commander. You can take my current notebook and replace it with my past one, or whatever it was you said. I'm just going to go to the med room."

The Commander smiled at him and placed his notebook on the console, out of the way of any controls. "Have fun," she wished him, watching as he exited the TARDIS with a wave of the hand. She stood there for a moment, her face solemn as she considered the millions of possible outcomes from everything she had learned over the past few hours. Abigail and Emma; the ever growing mystery that surrounded Dr. Anthony Miner…

She clapped her hands twice, causing the doors to shut, before whirling around the console once again. "Oh well," she demurred to herself, beginning to set her course for earlier that morning. "At least I've got something to think about for a while."

The TARDIS breathed to life as she twirled a final knob, causing the Commander to smile slightly. In the end, even if she lost everything, she still had this old girl to take her to where she needed to be.

* * *

Next time in _Vagrant with a Lost Home_: **_Tales from a Closet 1: Roswell, New Mexico:_ **One small closet. Four long hours. Tony can't just sit in silence with the Commander for that long without talking about something, even if they are actively being hunted by a creature neither of them had identified. And especially when the situation reminds him a lot of a story his grandfather, an ex-military doctor stationed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, used to tell him.

_*derrière: French for buttocks, basically._

_*If you don't know who Zheng is you could look him up through Google: Cyber-Commander Zheng. You can also look up Spare Parts, a Fifth Doctor story in which he had a major role._


End file.
